南宗頓教最上大乘摩訶般若波羅蜜經六祖惠能大師於韶州大梵寺施法壇經 1.57

1.57

The Master entered parinirvāṇa on the third day of the eighth month of the second year of Xiantian. On the eighth day of the seventh month, he summoned his disciples to bid them farewell. In the first year of Xiantian, the Master had built a stūpa at Guo'en Monastery in Xinzhou, and in the seventh month of the second year of Xiantian, he bade farewell. The Master said: "Come forward, all of you! In the eighth month, I wish to depart from the world. If you have any doubts, ask them early; I will dispel your doubts for you, so that the deluded will all be awakened and you will find peace and happiness. After I am gone, there will be no one to teach you." When Fahai and the other monks heard this, they wept bitterly in sorrow. Shenhui alone was unmoved and did not weep. The Sixth Patriarch said: "The young monk Shenhui has nevertheless attained the equality of good and non-good, unmoved by blame or praise. The rest of you have not attained this; what path have you been cultivating for so many years in the mountains? For whom are you grieving now in tears? Do you worry that I do not know where I am going? If I did not know where I am going, I would never bid you farewell. In your weeping, you do not know where I am going; if you knew where I am going, you would not weep. The essence of the nature is without birth and without death, without going and without coming." "All of you sit down! I shall give you a verse: the 'Verse on the Real, the Unreal, Motion, and Stillness'. All of you recite and grasp it; if you see the meaning of this verse, your mind will be the same as mine. Cultivate in accordance with this, and you will not lose the essential tenet." The assembly of monks bowed, requested the Master to leave the verse, and respectfully received and upheld it. The verse said: